Flattened tomato cage wind turbine

This wind turbine is made of 2 conical wire tomato cages, 2 fiberglass rods and clear tape. A metal piece of upright (wall) shelf track is at the center of this six feet+ wind turbine. It does not yet have the ideal shape.

I twisted all the wires at the tip of the tomato plant support cone and inserted them in the shelf track section. There I trapped the wire tips with hose clamps. Two of the 3 wires remained in the track for half the length of the track while the third wire came out of the track one inch above the twisting trio. Before that I crushed the three (ring) circles to yield 3 ellipses (with 3 tail made of excess metal that I did not cut off). In other words, the 3 wires that travel from bottom up when the tomato cage is in the ground are now located as follows: One of the is the leading edge of the blade. The other two are next and parallel to each other because I flatten the circular rings that way.
I wrapped clear tape from the top ellipse to the bottom one. These tape belts connected the ellipses,but had a space between them. However, the final tape wrapping was done in a direction perpendicular to the initial belts, I started at the wide end of the blade and worked my way toward the narrow part near the mid- section.

The fiberglass rods were added and secured before I used the tape. The whole thing is well balanced. It is hollow because I did not flatten the circles completely and the tape belts prevent tape from one side of the blade from coming in contact with tape covering the opposite side of the same blade. At the end of the wide section, I added a plastic coat hanger to make the transition between the ellipse that has a 1.5 inch thickness in the mid section to a 1/4 inch thick tip.

Cutting a piece of shelf track will require a metal cutting saw. Hose clamps, screw driver, pliers to twist the wire, short piece of skinny flexible wire and 12 rolls of clear tape (50 cents a roll at the dollar store), plus a couple of hours. The diameter is 6 feet and 3 inches. Once I find a shaft long enough to hold four blades, I will attach an electric scooter motor to it. Scooter motors are cheap and generate electricity. However they have carbon brushes that will need to be replaced. Attaching one side of the bicycle axle to the scooter motor shaft will require some kind of coupling. You can improvise and wrap both axles with wire mesh (a few turns of a wire mesh ribbon over the scooter motor sprocket and hub axle) secured with hose clamps. The motor will need to be supported independently.

The original tomato support wire cone had 4 rings. I cut off the top ring. In other words I could have built a turbine with 8 feet in diameter.
The fiberglass rods added strength to the structure. The good news is that it is hollow and lightweight. It can also be shaped like traditional wind turbines by adding distortion to the ellipses.

Any sticky plastic tape can do. I used skinny clear tape that was only 3/4 of one inch wide. Next time, I will do the tape wrapping in a room that is very warm, in order to keep it tight. In the past, I have uses shower curtains, plastic bags etc

The Fiberglass rods can be replaced by bamboo sticks.

More power to you! Just put it to work.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Wind
• turbine
• power
• tomato
• stakes
• motor
• generator
• Haitian

[skywatchbretten]

Great work.

[generatorblue]

Thank you!

[warcrackbigbob]

thats sick man,think im going to make 1 just like yours. keep makeing vids!!!

[generatorblue]

Thanks Bigbob.

I have a new turbine that I made a week ago. If I post a video clip of it now, someone is going to make a lot of money making them. I am just trying to find ways to benefit front it as well, before I release it to the public.

To me, it is unbelievable that I will deliver this one. It is a real vertical axis wind turbine with incredible speed. I hope that I can release it in a couple of months. Thanks!

[justiniancioroianu]

5 stars from me for you wind turbine!

[generatorblue]

Thank you, I need all the stars that I can get. Between you and I, I will say that the most important part of this assembly is the wall shelve track. Hint! Once the axle nut goes between the tracks, it is traped in such a way that you can screw it by rotating the whole piece of metal standard shelve tracks clockwise. You will need to make sure that the blades rotate clockwise as well. Tighten the nut with enough torque to prevent it from unscrewing when the turbine rotates counterclockwise.

[jdburnside]

Generatorblue, you are a sick man. Your mind is unbelievable. I come from a family of inventors and I know how you think. Great friggin' ideas

[field16]

It's a peaceful, quiet turbine. I like the choice of materials. You're very resourceful.

[justiniancioroianu]

Good work,like it very much,

good luck!

[generatorblue]

I thank you Annubis1372. I built a hollow turbine and will continue to do so until I built a turbine that has "lift". It is always about drag versus lift and torque versus speed. I have a lot to learn about making wind turbines. For now I know that the concave side (concave like a cave) delivers more torque, because I have been using gutter screens. PVC turbines also have the concave side face the wind. This turbine does not have a concave side. Maybe someone will help me make it better. Thanks!